1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to the electrospun fiber mat filter containing macrocycle for removing toxic compounds from a toxic material, wherein the toxic material comprises liquid, gas, and cigarette smoke. The electrospun cigarette filters for removing toxic compounds from a cigarette smoke and more particularly to an electro spun cigarette filter that can be used alone or can be woven with conventional cigarette filters for removing toxic compounds from the cigarette smoke. The embodiments herein also relate to a method of synthesizing the electrospun cigarette filter that removes toxic compounds from the cigarette smoke.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cigarette smoke contains a multitude of harmful components. An important component in tobacco smoke or cigarette smoke that is harmful to the health of smokers is tar. The tar consists of many carcinogenic compounds. In commercially available cigarettes, the tar content of the smoke is mainly reduced by the use of filters placed inside a cigarette. Conventionally, the filters are made up of organic materials such as cellulose or modified cellulose like acetate cellulose. Further the hazardous compounds contain numerous metals and oxidants that are found toxic. The combination of both metals and oxidants is devastating for human health. Other harmful components of tobacco smoke are carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, acetic aldehyde and formic aldehyde, nitrosamines, sulphur dioxide, phenols, mercury, nickel, iron, copper, chromium, aluminium, vanadium, lead, cobalt, silicon, titanium, manganese, zinc, cadmium, barium, strontium and arsenic compounds which are only adsorbed or absorbed to a minor extent by the conventional filters. Therefore several specific filters have been developed to reduce the concentration of these compounds in cigarette smoke.
The metal pollutants in cigarette smoke as well as the oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide, peroxyradicals, nitrogen oxides, and combination thereof exert devastating effects on human cells leading to contraction of cells, functional impairment and cell death. An oxidative damage based on cigarette smoke components is a main cause leading to atherosclerosis, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and cancer. The cultures of vascular endothelial cells treated with cigarette smoke extracts develop typical symptoms associated with atherosclerosis, like cytoskeletal disintegration, the breakdown of cell-cell junctions and low viability through necrotic cell death. The use of compounds such as atorvastatin and N-acetyl cysteine improved cell viability up to a level.
It is widely known that tobacco smoke contains mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds, which cause substantial morbidity and mortality to smokers. The examples of such substances include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrosamines. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons appear to cause toxicity by intercalating within the DNA molecules. The nitrosamines are electrophilic alkylating agents, which are potent carcinogens. The nitrosamines are not present in fresh or green tobaccos and are not formed during combustion. They are instead formed by reactions involving free nitrate during processing and storage of tobacco or by the post-inhalation, metabolic activation of secondary amines present in the tobacco smoke.
The attempts to reduce the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds that reach the smoker include tobacco smoke filters positioned between the burning tobacco and the smoker. The conventional filters are made of cellulose acetate, with or without activated charcoal. These conventional filters, however, are only partially effective in reducing the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds reaching the smoker. Further, these conventional filters disadvantageously remove the flavoring compounds thereby decreasing an acceptance by the smoker.
There have been filter absorbents that are intended to bind nitrogen monoxide (NO) from tobacco smoke. The ferrous ions capable of forming a complex with nitrogen monoxide is attached with thiol-containing low molecular weight ligands to form complexes which are impregnated as aqueous solution on the conventional filter material such as cellulose based filters. The metal based smoke filters have also been produced. The catalytic activity of rare earth metals, zirconium and manganese oxide or hydroxides are used to eliminate toxic compounds such as carbon monoxide, NOx, nitrosamines, aldehydes, aromatic amines, sulfates and phosphor sulfonates as well as the metals such as cadmium, nickel and zinc from the cigarette smoke. The tobacco smoke filters that comprise a porphyrin-ring metal complex, as found in hemoglobin are capable of inactivating the oxidative radicals such as O2−, H2O2, NO and other organic radicals, such as isoprene-, peroxyl-, alkoxyl-radicals, that are found in cigarette smoke. Further, an impregnation of filter materials that contain mercaptoethane sulfonic acid and results in a limited reception of the compound by the filter material which is capable of reducing the formaldehyde, acrolein and hydrocyanic acid content of cigarette smoke by 10 to 25% have been disclosed. An inorganic filter comprising thioalkylsilyl groups covalently bound to an inorganic molecular sieve substrate, e.g. zeolite, for the absorption of mercury and cadmium from cigarette smoke is also disclosed. But none of the prior art methods describe a cigarette filter that is efficiently removes the toxic compounds from a cigarette smoke without a removal of flavouring compounds from the cigarette thus providing an acceptance to a user.
Hence there is a need for an improved filter for smoking devices that substantially removes toxic and mutagenic compounds from tobacco smoke without losing the user's acceptance.
The above-mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.